My Life As a Male Stripper
by freakybella
Summary: Edward decides to write a book about male strippers and elects to become one for his research. He meets Bella along the way. Will she fall for the stripper or the man he really is? Rated MA for language and future lemons. ExB Please read and review.
1. Prologue

**My mind has been in overdrive lately. So many thoughts and images running through my head, that this is the only way to get them out. This idea came to me when I attended a male strip club with my girlfriends for a birthday celebration. Yes, a male strip club where the end up in nothing but a cock ring.**

**Edward is desperate to break out on his own and write a book. He finds the life of a male stripper intriguing and decides to pose as a stripper to get the real feel for it so he can write a book about it. Bella and her friends walk into the club for a birthday party seeing the most beautiful man she has ever seen dancing naked. Will she like him because he is a stripper or the man he really is? **

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Myers owns Twilight and all the characters. This story is mine.**

**Please read and review!!**

My Life as a Male Stripper

Prologue

You just have to walk out there.

_Yea but I have to walk out there and get naked._

You wanted to do this remember.

_I wanted to write a book. Not do this. Not exactly._

Not exactly. What do you mean not exactly? How are you ever going to know what it feels like if you don't do it yourself?

_I can ask some of the other dancer's questions. Get them to tell me what it's like to dance in front of a room full of people buck ass naked. Without me having to get buck ass naked I might add._

Like that's going to give you the real feel of it. You have to dance.

_But I don't want to_.

You have to dance. You have to get out there strip off your clothes and dance. When it's over you have to crawl around for your tips like you've seen the other dancers do. But you won't know what if feels like unless you do it.

_But I don't want to._

Stop whining like a baby and get your pansy ass out there. You have lived a sheltered life all of your life. There's no way you know what these dancers go through on a nightly basis. The dancing, the strutting around, and the way they have to mingle with the crowd. The lap dancing that goes on behind closed doors.

You have to do this. You have never wanted to do anything in your life besides write. You have written a couple of great papers for your college professors and what have each one of them said. You need to write about something you know. You can't write about a love life if you never had one. You can't write murder and mystery when you don't have the imagination for it or the stomach.

After you graduated from college, you went to work with for your father at the newspaper because that was what was expected of you. You did it to appease him. Not yourself. You have a degree in writing and journalism. That's not going to waste by working at the paper, but it's not what you want to do. You want to write. You want to write about more interesting stories than just local government or business news.

You want to write about things that are exciting and real. Not saying that what you write about in the newspaper isn't real. It's not the real thing you want to write about though. You want to write about life and how it's lived. How are you ever going to write about life if you haven't lived it?

You spent your whole life living in the shadows. Never able to experience school life or friends because you were home schooled, tutored by the best of the best. Not knowing what it was like to walk down the halls of the schools with friends or sit in a classroom with them. The only real life you had was when you were in college and even then you went home every night not having the chance to experience the true college life.

You have been nothing more than a geek your entire life. You have to get out there and live. That's why you moved from your parent's huge house in the country club and moved into an apartment the size of the entertainment room at their house. You quit your job at the newspaper parked your car in the garage and walked out of your house leaving your fuddy-duddy clothes behind.

If you want to write about something like this, then you have to live it. Sure Ben and Tyler can talk to you until their blue in the face about them coming out here every night and shaking their goods in front of everybody. But you will never know until you walk out there and do it for yourself.

_I know your right. But damn all those people out there_.

Don't think about them. Just get out there and shake what your mama gave you. You've sat in the corner in the dark long enough and watched all these other guys enough to know what to do.

_You're right. I'll just turn off the old Edward and turn on the new. _

That's it. You can do this. Get out there and live this. Just imagine all you will experience. The thrill of dancing naked in front of women who will be screaming for you, walking around these women afterwards talking dirty to them, getting up close and personal with a woman while you do a lap dance for her. Then when you are finished you will write the most amazing book about The Life of a Male Stripper.

_Why did I choose this topic again?_

Because the thought of it excites you. Every since you heard some of the guys talking about doing this to make extra money, you wondered what it would be like. For you to take off your clothes in front of someone, to feel the rush of excitement when they scream for you to take it off, and then the thrill of dancing around naked. You want this not only so you can write about. You want this so you can live it to. Just do it.

_What is this a fucking ad for Nike?_

No it's your brain telling you for once in your life do something for yourself.

_Okay here it goes. My life as a male stripper, Chapter 1._

**A/N: The chapters will skip point of views from Edward to Bella. I have no rhyme or reason. I do not have a beta and try my best to proof read before I post. Please forgive any mistakes. Remember, this is fiction people. **

**So what do you think, should I continue? Please review! Until then, I'll be with Linus and his blanket, hiding.**


	2. We're Going Where?

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Myers owns Twilight and all the characters. But stripper Edward is mine.**

**Thank you to tawelephant for being my beta on this chapter! You rock baby mama!**

**Please read and review!!**

**My Life as a Male Stripper**

**Chapter 1: We're going where?**

**Bella's POV**

Sitting in my office is the bane of my existence. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and the people I work for. It's just sometimes I get bored, and I know I should take the time to work on my own writing, but just can't seem to do it here in the office.

I am an editor for a small publishing house in Seattle. We are certainly not a Little Brown and Company kind of place or Random House for that matter. Just a small mom and pop enterprise owned by just that, a mom and pop.

Mr. and Mrs. Hale had started this company before one of my closest friends, Rosalie was ever born. They were both writers, both wanting to get their works published, and just like every other writer, discovered how hard it was to get a publishing company to look at your work. Besides that, the idea of someone else editing their work to suit the publisher's needs, didn't sit well with them. They believed that your work should stand on its own and the only editing that should be done was grammatical errors.

With a small investment and some friends in the business willing to help them, they started what is now known as a well respected publishing house. They have published all of their own books, and many other books by writers whom the big publishing houses wouldn't give the time of day to. The fact that these big publishing houses turned down what they thought as nobody's, has been their loss and Hale Publishing's gain.

Rosalie and I grew up together, along with our other best friend, Alice. The three of us grew up in the same neighborhood, attending the same elementary, middle, and high school together. The only exception was college. Rosalie and I attended the University of Washington at Seattle together, while Alice went off to fashion school. That is where she met Angela. Angela was attending business school, but they somehow ended up in the same sorority house together. And when Alice came home, Angela followed. So now there is four of us that are basically like the Three Musketeers plus one. Kind of like that movie where there were three of them and the fourth came along and joined right in.

Because of my friendship with Rosalie, that is how I ended up in the profession that I am now. Mr. and Mrs. Hale and I would discuss literature to no end, driving Rosalie up the wall. When I turned sixteen, I started working part time in the publishing house for them doing whatever they asked me to. At eighteen, I became a part time proof reader working there the entire time I was in college.

Rosalie despised the written word. If it wasn't on a menu or in a fashion magazine, she wouldn't look at it. It was a wonder that she did as well as she did in school. She graduated in the top ten of our class in high school and in the top ten percent of her graduating class in college. Rosalie was interested in advertising, and so she steered as far away as she could from anything that had to do with English.

I, on the other hand, loved to read. It was nothing for me to read three hundred pages a day or more. If the book was interesting and I related to the characters, I would devour it. Rosalie and Alice lived their lives vicariously, while I lived my life in the pages of a book. The written word was fascinating to me so much so that I dreamed of writing my own novel one day.

Rosalie and I were as different as daylight and dark, but it just proves that opposites attract. She was beautiful and outgoing, while I was plain and shy. Rosalie said I never saw myself very clearly, but that is really hard when your best friend looks like a supermodel. She was beyond gorgeous with her blonde hair, blue eyes and tall shapely body. To me, my brown hair and brown eyes seemed very dull in comparison.

After we graduated from college, we moved into our own apartments, in the same building. Rosalie went to work for an advertising agency and I started working full time for her parents. My major in English literature became useful as I became a full time editor and began working on my own novel. At times, it seemed to go as slow as a snail.

Alice moved home around the same time as we did and started her own line of designer clothes. She purchased a building downtown opening a small boutique on the main level. The second level housed all of her sewing machines and where the designing took place. Then she took the other two levels and had them renovated into a loft apartment for herself.

She had four girls who worked for her helping her sew or sell, wherever they were needed. Rosalie did her advertising for her and Angela did her accounting. Sometimes I would model for her when she listed her clothes for sale on her website. Rosalie's brother Jasper set up her website and all of her internet sales for her. Alice had secretly had a crush on Jasper for years, but he was too big of an idiot to see what was right in front of him.

When Alice moved back home, Angela followed her and got a job as a certified public accountant at a local accounting firm. Rosalie and I had became close friends with Angela just like Alice had and we were ecstatic when she moved to Seattle to be with us. It was nice to have Angela in our group of friends, because she was a lot like me and didn't like to be the center of attention.

So the four of us, were thick as thieves, always going out together or hanging out at one of our apartments, emailing back and forth or texting each other. Friday night was always pizza, hot wing and movie night and Saturday night was always Mexican night, going out to our favorite Mexican restaurant and getting drunk as hell on margaritas.

Then there were our birthdays. We would spend the entire day together, pampering ourselves, treating ourselves however we wanted then going out to eat. Each time we would choose a different restaurant to eat, trying a new spot or a different style of food. We had traveled all over within a hundred mile radius to places that had received great reviews or that someone had recommended. It was a great way to experience new food at a new place and just spend time together.

My phone rang shrilly, breaking me out of my thoughts. Reaching over to pick up the phone, I glanced at the clock noticing the time and grinned. It was Alice. She always called me during her lunch break.

"Damn I'm glad you called." I stated, sighing happily into the receiver of the phone.

"One of these days Bella, you are going to answer the phone like that and it's not going to be me on the other line. What the hell are you going to do then?" Alice retorted then snickered at her on joke.

"No one calls me on this line but you, Rose, or Angela. Sometimes I'm lucky if my mom calls, when she is even in the country." But she was right; I should really watch what I say at work, although Mr. Hale would laugh his ass off at me. He was used to Rosalie and the way she talked and knew that I could talk smack with the rest of them.

"For someone who loves books and reading as much as you do, you're always bored as shit at work." Alice razzed me like she always does. Not near as bad as Rosalie, but in her own way.

"It's just…I can do what editing needs to be done in like no time. Then I have nothing else to do. I try to write, but I can't get in the mood like I can at home or at the coffee house. I tried to get Mr. Hale to give me something else to do, but he says if he gives me anything else, there won't be anything left for the rest of them to do. All three of them." Frowning, I thought about the one other full time editor here at Hale publishing besides me, Emmett.

Emmett was built like a jock, tall with broad shoulders, but was the biggest nerd you could ever imagine, wearing thick rimmed glasses and Converse shoes with dress pants. But he was really awesome, a book worm like me, could read faster than you could imagine and was in love with Rosalie. And that is what made me really frown, she didn't give him the time of day and he would never get up enough courage to speak to her. It had been that way for the past year since Emmett had worked here.

"I know how you are, you fucking hermit." Alice accused causing me to grimace. She had me there. Alice knows that I go three places alone, home, the coffee house, and the grocery store. Other than that, I go to work or out with them.

"I'm not a hermit Alice. I go out. We go out every Friday and Saturday night." Sarcasm was dripping from my voice; I hoped she would get the hint.

"Only with us. When was the last time you had a date Bella." Alice asked causing me to get defensive.

"Please don't start that Alice. I don't want to think about it." The last time I had gone out on a date, was over six months ago. I had met this really cool guy, or so I thought, at the coffee shop. He saw me typing and started a conversation with me. He asked me out the next time I saw him, and because Alice made me, I went out with him. If I had known he was going to be like a fucking octopus, I would have opted out on the date. He ended up with a bloody nose and my hand was broken. It wasn't funny, and I didn't like thinking about it.

"Okay. Okay. Anyway, the reason I called was to talk to you about Rosalie's birthday. Do you know where she has decided to go?"

"No, I haven't talked to her in a couple of days. She's been busy with that new ad campaign." Clicking on my inbox, I checked to see if I had gotten any new emails. There was one from Rosalie that had come in just recently.

**TO: Alice Brandon; Bella Swan; Angela Webber **

**FROM: Rosalie Hale**

**SUBJECT: My Birthday **

**Well, it's that time of year again, my birthday. Get ready my bitches. This year I want to do something totally different. The girls here at the office have been to a place called arrow and that is where I want to go. Before you get your knickers in a twist Bella, get over it because it's my birthday and this is where were going. To check it out, google arrowseattle. I would put the entire link or web address in my email, but you know my server here at my office won't recognize it. Fuckers! Too bad you can't recognize what I'm doing with my middle finger!**

**Rosalie**

I had to laugh at the last part. Rosalie's server at her office wouldn't recognize web addresses and frustrated the hell out of Rosalie. It was really stupid because you could get around it by putting the word dot instead of the period, but it was just annoying as hell.

After reading the email, I opened up my browser and googled the name to see what would come up. When I clicked on the link, I was directed to their website. The name of the club came across the screen, 'arrow' with the symbol for the male sex where the o went. A loading icon popped up, and when the main page loaded, the music started playing, and my mouth fell open. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Uh, no. She is perfectly serious. Some girls at her office went and couldn't shut up about it. Rosalie came by a little while ago to buy a new dress for her birthday and told me all about it. She wants to go this Saturday night."

The outline of a man's body shadowed with lights blinking all around looked like he was in the middle of a room crowded with people. The description boasted that they were the first male strip club that had ever opened in Seattle. 'See it ALL!' it claimed across the top of the web page. Along the bottom, there was a photo gallery of some of the male dancers. When I scrolled through the gallery of pictures, there were pictures of the strippers that danced at the club. They weren't naked in the picture, but clad only in a skimpy pair of something that looked like swim trunks showing off their bulges. Also there were pictures of the inside of the club, one showing the stage where they danced with a pole at the end.

"Tell me we aren't going to this place. Please." I begged. The thought of watching a man get up and dance naked in front of me made the blood rush to my face and I wasn't even there yet.

"It's Rosalie's birthday. You know the rules. When it's your birthday, you pick where we go." Alice retorted. "Besides that, it could be fun."

"Yea, right, fun. But we usually choose a restaurant, not a fucking strip club." Mumbling back to her, as I looked around on the website. There was another picture of the stage where they danced, this one with a man standing against a pole with his head thrown back in what looked like the throws of passion.

"Oh Bella. Grow up. You can't touch them. They can't touch you. What's the big deal?" Alice quipped back to me.

"The big deal is their naked. Aren't they?" I whispered back into the phone. Looking toward my door, I wanted to make sure that my door was closed so that no one could hear me or the stripper music streaming from my computer speakers. I wasn't real sure how Rosalie's parents would feel about their daughter's choice of entertainment. Plus I would be embarrassed as hell trying to explain it to anyone why I was looking at this website.

"Yep, there naked. That's why they call it a strip club." Alice whispered back, clearly making fun of me.

"Ha Ha. Very funny. You guys always get a kick out of making fun of me. It's just…I'm…I don't know if I can sit and watch that."

"Well, you know Rosalie. You aren't going to have a choice. If this is what she wants to do, this is what we are going to do. Rosalie always gets her way." Alice replied earnestly.

The fact was she was right. No matter what anybody else said, if Rosalie wanted to do something she was going to do it come hell or high water. It didn't matter to Rosalie if you were uncomfortable or not. It didn't matter if it wasn't your idea of fun or not. If Rosalie was inclined to jump in head first, you better be ready, because you were going to be the next one to jump.

"Fine. I guess you're right. It's her birthday, she gets to choose." Mumbling back, there really was no reason to try and fight it, nothing I said was going to make a difference.

Quickly I forwarded the link to Angela.

**TO: Angela Webber**

**FROM: Bella Swan**

**SUBJECT: Rosalie's Birthday**

**This is the place Rosalie listed in her email. What do you think?**

**Bella**

My phone beeped letting me know I had another call coming in, and after quickly getting off with Alice, I answered the other line.

"Bella Swan. May I help you?"

"Don't you sound all professional. What the hell are you doing besides nothing? And I know you're not doing shit. My dad won't let you do more than your share because he won't have anything for the rest of them to do. All three of them." Rosalie stated cheekily.

Rosalie just loved to give me hell, much more so than Alice. She knew how her dad was, the fact that he wouldn't give me anymore work than the rest of them. Knowing me all to well, that I had finished my work for the day, and I should be working on my novel, but just couldn't do it here in the office.

"What the hell is this? Pick on Bella day." I snapped back, giving Rosalie as good as she gives.

"Who else has been picking on you? I'll kick their ass. Just give me a name." Rosalie fumed. She was very protective of me. Sure she could call me every name in the book, tell me I looked like shit, or crawl my ass for any other reason she felt like, but no one else could. Rosalie would draw the circle and invite anybody in.

"Alice." That would shut her up. Alice was the only other one who could say anything to me without the repercussions of Rosalie dooming you.

"Damn she beat me to it." There was a pause and I could hear Rosalie talking with someone in the background. "Sorry about that. So you talked with Alice. Good we're all on the same page then."

"Well I don't know if we are all on the same page. But, yea I know what's doing." Every since I read _The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by J.R. Ward_, I couldn't help but pick up on some of the lingo she used in the book. Twilight was awesome in its on right, but The Brothers, were a force to be reckoned with.

"Don't start talking shit to me." Rosalie laughed knowing exactly what I was saying. After reading about those hot vampires and their hot sex life, I had to tell the girls about it. I thought that maybe with all the sex and smack talking that Rosalie might finally give a book a chance. I was wrong. She did however ask me questions about the books and listened in rapt attention when I was describing the sex these vampires had.

Giggling, I answered back. "I feel you. Now are we seriously going to a strip club for your birthday?"

"Damn straight we are. Some of the girls here at the office went last weekend and said it was totally awesome. I know what your thinking so stop right there. You can't touch them because there is a law or some shit that says when a stripper is totally naked you have to be at least three feet away from them. Tiffany said that there is like a mote around the stage so you can't reach them."

"This is your birthday Rosalie, and I'll do whatever you want, but don't expect me to be comfortable about it." Lowering my voice to almost a whisper I continued. "What will your parents say when they find out?"

"It's my birthday. I'll do what I please. Fuck Bella, if mom knew we were going she would probably want to go with us. But let's not go there. I don't care what anybody thinks. Guys do it all the time, and no one says shit about that. We're a bunch of ladies who are just going to be entertained. Watching hot guys dance around a pole naked as hell. Yea, we're going. Deal." Rosalie ended with a huff. When she got like this, she would not be swayed. If she had her mind set, that was it. "Listen, I have to get back to this campaign I've been working on. It's a bitch. I'll call you tonight."

My computer signaled that I had an incoming email. Opening up my inbox, I saw that Angela had responded.

**TO: Bella Swan**

**CC: Alice Brandon, Rosalie Hale **

**FROM: Angela Webber**

**Wow! I didn't even know a place like this existed. Guess this is the naughty version of Chippendale's. I'm game for whatever. Let me know what time to be ready. Don't worry Bella, it won't be that bad. You guys have a good rest of the week. I'm swamped. There are so many people out right now sick, we are falling behind.**

**Angela**

Well I guess were going to a male strip club for Rosalie's birthday. Woo hoo!

**A/N: Please review and let me know what you think. How will I know how I'm doing if you don't review? Until then, I'll be hiding with Linus under his blanket. Next chapter will be in Edward's POV. **

**If you want to see the place I went, just google arrownashville. Nothing but cock rings baby.**


	3. Changes

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Myers owns Twilight and all the characters. But stripper Edward is mine.**

**Thank you to tawelephant for being my beta on this chapter! You rock baby mama!**

**Please read and review!!**

**My Life as a Male Stripper**

Chapter 2: Changes

Edward POV

The only way I was going to pull this off was to completely reinvent myself. Changing my appearance, from the way I dressed to the way I carried myself, I was going to leave nothing unchanged.

First to go were my glasses. My eye doctor prescribed contacts, which made it possible to get rid of my glasses. It was very awkward at first trying to use them. It took me forty five minutes just to get one contact in one eye the first time that I attempted to put them in. They were scratchy and made my eyes water, but after the first twenty tries, I finally got used to them.

I let my hair grow out, making it shaggy looking, hanging down over my forehead. The barber told me not to use a comb anymore if I wanted the disheveled look that so many guys had that worked at the club. My hair began to look as if I just rolled out of the bed and ran my fingers through it. It was very different from the way I was used to keeping it styled.

Actually, I liked it this way because I didn't have to battle with it every day to try and tame it. For as long as I can remember, my mother had made me slick my short hair back. I had hated it. When my parents allowed me to go to college, I didn't slick it back anymore because I knew that if I did I would look like the perfect pocket protector geek. I had to fight my mother over it, but in the end my father came to my defense.

With my clothes it wasn't much different. I left behind anything that appeared geeky or like something a teacher or librarian would wear. There would be no more sweater vest or cable knit styled sweaters. The suits and ties that I had always been made to wear to dinner every night, that made me feel restricted and stiff, would stay hanging in my closet. The loafers and dress shoes that made my feet sweat and slip and slide when I walked, causing blisters, were definitely staying behind.

In a way this all felt very freeing to me.

When I packed up what things I thought would fit the persona that I would be using, there wasn't much left. The only things I ended up carrying with me were a couple of pair of blue jeans, some white t shirts and a plaid shirt that looked like the liner of a rain jacket. My Chuck Taylor's, Converse high tops and running shoes could go either way, so I decided to take them with me. Besides that, they were the most comfortable pair of shoes I owned. Out of my entire wardrobe, these were the only things that looked normal. Something a college student would wear. A normal person would wear, unlike the geek I really was.

My parents were not happy when I told them I was leaving. My father was more upset than my mother because I would not keep my job at the newspaper. He said I had a responsibility to our family and to myself to make the right decisions. This was not the right decision for anybody, much less the newspaper. When I told him the only responsibility I had was to myself, it didn't go over well.

"Damnit Edward. You just can't go running off at a moment's notice just because you get a wild hair up your ass to write a book. You have a job writing. A job, I might add, that is part of your duty to your family to carry on the family tradition of the newspaper."

Thinking back, as long as I can remember my parents had said that I would work at our family owned newspaper as a columnist then after my father retired, I would become editor in chief just like every Cullen had done for the past four generations. It was more of a burden and a chore than something I looked forward to.

My father had not stopped yelling at me since I had announced that I was moving out of our family home and into my own apartment so that I could follow my dream of being an author. He had continued on his ranting and raving while my mother just sat crying into her hands.

What would they say if they knew what the subject of my book was about? I think I will keep the fact that I am researching male strippers to myself for right now. One shock for them is enough right now. Well two, my sudden change of looks had almost driven my mother to drink. If she only knew that was how I had felt for years.

"Listen Dad. I have to do this for myself. If I don't I'm afraid that I will look back on my life years later and regret that I didn't at least give this a shot."

"What you're going to regret is leaving behind a legacy that was started generations before you. You have an obligation to your family to stay and work at the newspaper."

"No Dad. I have an obligation to myself first. If this doesn't work out, I promise you I will be back. Please try and understand. I've never done anything on my own but college. Even then, I pursued a degree in what was expected of me. For once I want to do the unexpected. Please let me do this."

After more yelling on my father's part and more tears from my mother, they finally conceded. It was my mother that finally talked my father into letting me do this, which was the biggest surprise of all.

_Oh mom, if you only knew._

The small loft apartment I rented rested on the third floor in a warehouse that overlooked the river that snaked through downtown. After looking at several places to rent, this was the only one I would even consider. Yea I wanted to live like an average person, but there was no way in hell I was going to stay somewhere that had vermin and varmints. That is where I drew the line.

The open floor plan combined the kitchen and living area doing away with any thought of formal spaces. The large windows and brick walls added character to the wide open space. Off the kitchen area was a hallway that led down to the master bedroom with an en suite bathroom with a garden tub. Opposite the master bedroom was another full bath and a spare bedroom.

It was a nice living space even though it wasn't on the high end of the real estate market. The entire apartment was about the size of the media room at my parent's house. I loved it.

Decorating was cheap and easy. No more Chippendale furniture or antiques, no more Monet paintings or priceless crystal. Everything I bought was modern, in earth tones with plush cushions. Instantly I felt relaxed, more so than I had felt in years. For that matter in my entire life.

Even though I had lived the life a rich person, that wasn't really me. It was my parents that were the snobs who wanted to eat dinner at the country club and socialize with the rich and infamous. Not me. No longer did I feel that I had to be proper and formal. It was just me and the real me was not what my parents had wanted me to be.

I filled my closet with distressed and faded jeans with holes and rips and concert t shirts that all came from a little shop downtown that sold vintage clothes. Instead of going to department stores for my purchases, I was going to rely on second hand shops and Wal-mart. I fucking loved Wal-mart. Where else could you go at midnight and buy beer and underwear?

My laptop was set up at my desk that was facing towards the windows giving me ample light to work and an awesome view of the river. I had already started writing down everything I had done so far. My story would be based on everything I was doing to become a male stripper, from changing the way I looked, to the way I lived, and the people that I would meet. All the things I did, from the moves I performed to the music I would choose to dance to. I was leaving no stone unturned.

I was going to explain what drew men to the life of a male stripper. Why I was drawn to it. What drove men to the choice of having to strip? Did they do for the money? Were they exhibitionists who liked the idea of showing their bodies off to other people? How they felt when they were up there dancing to a crowd of screaming people. Male and female.

Then I would discuss my experience of becoming a dancer. Living the life of someone who stood on stage and took off their clothes for money. I could see it all in my head. My outline was already written along with the first two chapters.

Ben and Tyler, the two guys I had met in college, who told me that they danced for a male strip club on the side to make extra money, had been describing to me in great detail about it felt to do something like this.

It didn't bother them to get up there and dance naked in front of a crowd of people. They would tune out all of the guys that were out there and concentrate on the women. They said it made them feel hot to go out there and dance like that for women. Even though they tried to ignore the men, they got some satisfaction that another man would lust after them that way.

_Would I feel that way?_

I tagged along with them to the club a few times before I ever got the courage up to ask if I could get a job dancing. At first Harry, the owner of the club laughed, wondering why a pretty boy like me wanted to do something like that. He said he could tell right off the bat that I was something akin to blue blood and asked what the hell I was doing in this place.

"Why in the hell do you want to work as a fucking stripper? Did your parents cut off your trust fund or something?" Throwing his head back, he let out a huge roar of laughter at his own joke.

"No, actually I am doing research for a book."

When I explained to him I was doing research to write a book based on my life as a male stripper, he laughed his ass off at first then told me he didn't give a shit what I did in my past time. As long as I was getting out there and dancing he didn't give a fuck. He told me that the way the college kids came and went that he was sure a position would open up soon.

Because he said his gaydar told him that I wasn't gay, he didn't mind me coming in to the club every once in a while to watch the others dance so I could get an idea of what to expect. Ben and Tyler both agreed to keep their mouth shut that I was writing a book about male stripping. Of course the fact that I paid them some money on the side didn't hurt anything and I promised to mention them by name in the book.

Harry employed four full time dancers and kept six part time guys to fill in the gaps when his best dancers were resting or working the floor. The four full time dancers were experienced dancers that had come from all over the United States.

Dimitri, the most experienced of the dancers had come from Miami, which was evident because of his dark skin and sun streaked hair. His gig was dressing like a repair man with a zip down jumpsuit complete with a tool belt and hard hat. The ladies went crazy for him every time he would come out and strip. Something about the role playing of the dancer being in costume and stripping out of it evoked a fantasy for the women. And let's not forget the men.

Felix, who used Flex as a stage name, may have not had as much time under his belt as Dimitri, but he had a natural flare for dancing. His skit was dressing as a construction worker with a large tool belt and suspenders over his wife beater holding up his jeans. A hard hat was used in his attire just like Dimitri's. With his buzzed cut hair and muscular body he fit the image perfectly.

Flex certainly lived up to his name. When he was out there dancing, he was more flexible than I thought any man could be. The ladies would go wild over him, especially during the part of his act where he was humping the stage like he was having sex.

The other two full time dancers, Laurent and James, didn't use costumes or props for their acts. They just relied on dancing and doing spectacular stunts on the pole giving there performance something of its own. Each one had a unique style of dancing, setting them apart from Dimitri and Flex, and even each other for that matter.

Laurent was an African American, whose skin was almost jet black with dread locks woven into his hair. Over six feet tall, his body was lean but muscular. He usually danced to hip hop music incorporating those types of dance moves into his act.

James looked like a lead singer to a grunge band with his shaggy dirty blonde hair. He was shorter than some of the other dancers, but made up for it in other areas. His penis was porn worthy. Although it wasn't the biggest penis in history, he was thicker than most and with his cock ring on he looked even bigger.

_Oh the cock ring. What am I going to do about that?_

The first couple of times that I had come and watched some of the dancers, I hadn't noticed that they wore what I later would find out was a cock ring. After gaining enough courage to move closer to the stage, I finally caught a glimpse of this thing that was wrapped around their cock and balls that looked like a thick rubber band. Finally I asked Tyler what the hell it was.

"It's a cock ring. Harry makes all the dancers wear one. It keeps you harder longer." Tyler said with a lilt of amusement in his voice.

"Doesn't it hurt?" My voice had a nervous pitch to it causing Tyler to laugh.

"You get used to it. Google it. _Wikipedia_ can explain it better than I can."

So that night I did exactly that. Sure enough when I looked it up there were several websites that directed you to sex toy websites, but there was a link to a definition of it on _Wikipedia_.

'_A __**cock ring**__ or __**cockring**__ is a ring that is placed around a man's penis__,__ usually at the base, primarily to slow the flow of blood from the erect penile tissue, thus maintaining erection for a longer period of time.' _

There were even pictures of men's cocks with a cock ring either attached at the head of their penis or around their cock and balls.

_Fuck me. The thought of it made my dick shrivel. How the hell was I going to get hard when the thought of putting one of those on made my dick want to retreat in self defense!_

Another thing all the dancers had in common was the fact that they all were bare as a baby around their cock and balls. Each one had shaved or waxed off all of their hair in that area. One reason was that it was apparently more appealing to the audience because it left nothing to the imagination. The other was the cock ring could pull out hairs and from what I understood that was some painful shit.

That was another thing I was going to have to do. Shave my junk. If I don't, that cock ring is going to be pulling my hairs down there. I have a very low threshold for pain, so there was no way I was going to wear that thing and have the chance of hurting myself. Damn. Shaving and the cock ring is enough to scare any man.

Not all of the dancers shaved down there. Ben didn't because he said that he wasn't going to take the chance of cutting his jewels and the thought of hot wax that close to his dick made it shrivel, so he opted out of what some called the Brazilian look.

Tyler, on the other hand, loved the idea of being bald down there stating that every girl he went out with loved it and he was getting more blowjobs than ever because of being bare down there.

Only a few of the other part time dancers were bare, but I noticed as I watched them that the ladies definitely did like it better shaven. To me it exposed even more of yourself, but like a little hair down there mattered when you were naked as the day you were born.

But no matter what, they all danced around the stage, moving all around to make sure that each of the customers that were lined up around the stage got a display of their goods. This way, when it was time to work the floor for table lap dances or private lap dances, the clientele would have a good idea of what they would get if they decided to pay money for something a little extra.

As I watched each one of them dance, I learned moves to use while dancing and tricks to do when using the pole. Practicing at home to the music I had selected to dance to, I worked through the moves trying to make up my own routine. After hours when the club was closed and the staff was cleaning, they allowed me to rehearse using the pole.

The fact that these people who I barely knew were watching me while I was dancing was bad enough, but the thought of dancing naked in front of a room full of people made me nauseous. It was something I was going to have to face no matter what because I had changed everything to do this and I wasn't backing out now.

**A/N: So what do you think? Do you think I should continue? Please review and let me know. Until then, I'll be with Linus hiding under his blanket, thinking about Edward dancing. Yummy! **

**Next chapter will be in Bella's POV. Google cock rings and arrownashville to see where the idea of this story came from.**


	4. A Night to Remember

**I'm so sorry that it has taken me so long to update. Real life has been crazy! I have one child in kindergarten that plays baseball. My oldest child is in 3****rd**** grade and is in the accelerated reading program. Between baseball practice and games, AR banquets and reward trips, field trips, plus volunteering at school and working part time, I have been extremely busy. **

**Thank you to tawelephant for being my beta on this chapter! You rock baby mama! ****Thanks to her and Cullenfan524 for being with me since the beginning. **

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Myers owns Twilight and all the characters. But stripper Edward is mine.**

**Please read and review!**

Chapter 3: A Night to Remember

Bella POV

"Bella Swan." My phone ringing saved me from my insanity. It was another boring day in the office of Bella Swan at Hale Publishing. The manuscript that I had been editing was almost finished. If I didn't pace myself, I was going to go out of my mind.

Usually I work on one manuscript a week. It doesn't take me long to read one from cover to cover. Unless it sucks. If it is good and hooks me from the first page, then I will devour it. If is sucks, well of course I struggle to get through it. Whatever corrections need to be made, I'll edit them, then pass if off to Mr. or Mrs. Hale. They have final say on all works to be published. My job is to see whether or not it goes to their hands. The Hales' know that if I don't like it, can't stay interested in it, that it probably won't do well.

"Hey girlfriend. What are you doing?" Angela spoke softly into the phone. She was like me, quite and soft spoken. Even though Rose and I had been friends since like forever, sometimes I felt like Angela was my soul sister.

"Hey back. I'm sitting in my cell waiting for them to throw me a bone." Sighing, I sat back in my chair.

"You know if you didn't read so fast, then maybe you wouldn't be finished so quick." Angela responded back. In the background, I could hear her clicking away on her calculator. She was a speed demon on that damn thing. Her fingers moved so fast, I didn't know how she knew if she was hitting the right numbers or not.

"What about you Miss Ten Key Wizard." We nicknamed her that after the song _Pinball Wizard by The Who_. One night we were at one of the bars that we liked to hang out at and there was a Rock Band contest. Some old ass got up there choosing that song as his entry causing us all to groan in protest. None of us liked any songs by The Who. Well except the theme song on CSI. To everyone's surprise, he rocked out that song on hard and finished in the top three.

"Touché. Hey, listen. I wanted to tell you that I can't go with you guys Saturday night."

All week I had been nervous as hell about going to the male strip club that Rose wanted to go to for her birthday. Several times I had pulled up the website to look at the strippers. The way they were pictured, scantily clad and slicked up with what I guessed was oil to show off their bodies made my imagination run wild.

"What? Oh no, don't do this to me. You were going to be my savior. There is no telling how Rose is going to act at that place."

Knowing Rose the way I did, I knew that she was going to be as outlandish as she always is. She has always been loud and outspoken. But if you add alcohol and hot naked guys, there will be no bounds to her behavior. The thought of how she would be made my stomach clench with anxiety.

"I'm sorry Bella. I have to go out of town and do an audit. The guy that was supposed to go is sick and we're shorthanded." Angela paused for a minute then whispered conspiratorially. "I was kinda looking forward to going. Some of those guys on that website look really hot. I can't imagine what it would be like to see them dance naked."

"Angela!" I admonished. "It is going to be so embarrassing sitting there watching them." My face began to blaze at the thought.

"Bella, really. It's not that big of a deal. So what. There naked. They can't touch you and you can't touch them."

Forget about the soul sister comment. Right now she was the enemy. It seems like it is always the quiet ones you have to worry about.

"You sound just like Rose." I muttered.

"Bella it's all just for fun. Go. Have fun. It won't be that bad. I wish you could take some pictures for me." In the background I heard someone come in her office. "Listen, I have to go. I'll call you when I get back."

With that Angela was gone. My mind began running over what she had said. Thinking about going to a strip club made my palms sweat. Just the thought of watching them being naked made me feel uncomfortable.

A chime on my computer alerted me to an email.

**TO: Alice Brandon; Bella Swan **

**FROM: Rosalie Hale**

**SUBJECT: Saturday night**

**Angela just emailed and said she had to go out of town for work this weekend. She is disappointed that she can't go but insisted that we go on without her and check the place out. Angela said that maybe we could go back for her birthday if we liked the place. So the plan is still on. I want to go to that little Italian place we love then head out to the strip club. I'm so excited! I can't wait! Dress up bitches!**

**Rosalie**

**Oh and Bella, don't worry so much! We're going to have fun! Promise!**

"That's easy for her to say." I muttered to myself frowning.

Saturday night was here before I knew it. All of the anxiety I had felt all week still had my stomach rolled into knots. Just as I got dressed my phone rang.

"Hello." I answered zipping up my knee high boots. Rosalie insisted that we dress up. Dressing up wasn't something that I did very often except when we went out. At the office I mostly wore jeans and my Chucks since I didn't deal with the public. Besides that it was more comfortable. So when we went out, I didn't mind getting dolled up.

"Hey, we're almost there. Are you ready?" Alice practically yelled through the phone. She had me on the speaker phone connected through her car. Music was pumping in the background and I could hear Rosalie singing along.

"Yea, I'm ready." As ready as I'll ever be to watch men dance around naked.

"What are you wearing?" Rosalie screamed at me from the background.

"My black and gray leopard print sweater with my black knee high skirt, the black knee high boots you got me for Christmas and tights." Standing in front of the mirror, I turned from left to right appraising my clothes.

"Sweet. See you in a minute." Alice and Rose both responded before disconnecting the call.

We arrived at the restaurant each ordering a glass of wine to go with our meal. While we ate, we laughed and reminisced about birthdays past relieving some of my tension. Our dinner was delicious and when we were finished, Alice and I split the check and headed out.

When we pulled into the parking lot, there were just a few places left to park. Apparently Saturday night was a busy night for the strip club. Instead of opting for the valet parking, Alice parked herself wanting nothing to happen to her prized Tahoe.

The building was one of the older ones in the district. It was constructed of brick, looking weathered from time, with a small awning at the entrance. There were no windows or anything decorative about the structure. Over the awning was a painted sign with the name of the club - Arrow with the male symbol in place of the o just like on the website.

There was a line at the door to get inside. It was mostly women, but I noticed there were a few men too. The line moved quickly and once inside the door we could hear the music.

After paying our cover charge we walked through the curtain into what I thought was a whole different realm of reality. My eyes instantly shot to the stage where a man was already dancing. Naked. Oh. My. God.

"Holy shit." Alice muttered.

"Now this is what I'm talking about!" Rosalie responded clapping her hands together.

A waiter walked over to greet us, and then escorted us to a table on the upper level of the club. Relief washed over me that she hadn't seated us close to the stage. After taking our drink order she disappeared into the crowd.

The club itself wasn't that big. The dance stage, set in the middle of the room, had a plastic floor with lights underneath and a pole at the end. Above the stage was a flashing disco light that flickered colors all around the room. Just as Rosalie's friends from work described, all around the stage was what looked like a mote keeping at least three feet between the dancers and the patrons.

Small tables were set up all along the dance floor, some with reserved signs set on top, while more tables were set up all around the main level. Behind the stage, the whole wall was made up of mirrors allowing you to see everything in the entire room. Along the wall at the entrance, what looked like an antique chandelier hung above a huge wood bar where waitresses and patrons were lined up to order drinks. At one end of the bar, there was a sound booth where two men were seated controlling the music and the lights.

Where we were seated, there were more tables behind the rail that separated the main level and the upper level. Two dancers, one on each rail, were posed on the wide plank that made up the top of the rail, dancing along with the music that was pumping out of the speakers. At least these guys had something on to cover their privates, even if it was nothing but a Speedo.

A man came out from the side door beside the stage making his way through the crowd. He would stop at each table, talking with the customers, laughing with them. At one of the tables, I watched as he slipped money in his g string before he started performing a table top dance right at the table.

When he finished, he started his tour of the tables again. As he came close to us, Rosalie hissed in approval. Squatting down beside her, Rosalie leaned in to close the distance between them. They flirted with each other, whispering in each other's ear and laughing loudly. When their conversation was over, he stood taking Rosalie's hand in his as he began to lead her from our table.

Looking over her shoulder, Rosalie called out to us. "Come on ladies. We just got upgraded."

"No way." Protesting, I stayed in my seat not budging.

"Bella. Get the fuck up. I want to sit closer." Alice shrieked at me as she pushed me out of my chair. For a short person, she sure can be pushy.

The dancer led us to one of the small tables that sat beside the stage with a reserve sign on it. When the waitress brought our drinks to us, he whispered in the girl's ear before handing her the reserve sign. After kissing Rosalie's hand, he walked away leaving Rosalie in a daze.

"Before the night is up, I want a lap dance from him. A private one upstairs." She hooked her thumb over her shoulder. Rosalie's eyes were hooded with desire as she watched the dancer make his way around the room.

"What the hell did he say to you?" Alice asked taking a sip of her drink.

"He said three pretty ladies shouldn't be hiding in the corner. When I told him all the good seats were taken, he said he would take care of that." Rosalie sipped her drink watching the dancer on stage over the lip of her glass.

My eyes followed what she was looking at. I gasped in surprise when I realized the dancer that was currently on stage was shaking his junk right at us. My face turned the color of a beet.

For a while, we were all speechless as we watched dancer after dancer come out and strip their clothes off to the music. Dancing around in nothing but their birthday suit, each one had his own style of dancing and music. This was one of the first times since I have known Rosalie that she was this quiet for this long.

One dancer came out, tattoos adorning his back and upper arms, his hair appeared greasy and stringy, a goatee on his chin, looking like a singer of a grunge band. When he stripped, his dick was one of the biggest ones I had ever seen, not like I had anything to compare it to.

_Would I by Alice in Chains_ played as he writhed around on the floor. Looking over to see the reaction of the girls, I noticed Alice in a deep conversation with a girl who looked about our age with bright red hair sitting alone at the table beside us.

When he was finished dancing, an announcement was made that there would be a short intermission before the next dancer began. Alice motioned with her head for us to follow as she stood from her seat and made her way to the bathroom.

"Who was that chick you were talking to?" Rosalie asked while we waited in line for our turn to go to the bathroom.

"She is married to the last guy that was up there dancing." Alice retorted with a laugh I assumed from the bugged out look on my face.

"No way." I whispered loudly.

"Yes way. He apparently does this for a living. I saw them exchange looks a couple of times, so I asked her if she knew him. She told me he has been doing this for several years now. Sometimes she works at the bar wherever he's dancing at. So after she filled me in, I asked her what the hell was that thing most of them were wearing around their dick and balls."

"I wandered about that myself." Rosalie responded eagerly. "Well, what did she say?"

"It's a cock ring." Alice stated smugly like the kid who had the right answer in class.

"What the hell is that?" I asked incredulously. Out of all my friends, I was the least educated in anything related to sex.

"They have to wear it around their trunk and baggage to keep it from going limp or getting to hard." Alice answered while I'm sure the look on my face was one of complete ignorance.

"Explain that again." Rosalie asked. My head snapped to hers. She looked just as confused as I did about what the hell a cock ring was. Rosalie was shocking the piss out of me. Speechless, quiet, confused, none of those were traits of hers. All the dicks swinging around must have turned her brain to mush. It sure as hell was mine.

"It's a band that they wear around their dick and balls. It keeps them semi hard, not exactly limp and not a full erection. She said they it would funny if they were dancing with a hard dick." Alice giggled.

"That's one I've never heard of before." Rosalie responded earnestly. Rosalie had attended sex parties before where the women would set up sex toys and let you peruse and choose what you wanted to buy. This must have been something that she hadn't seen before. She was more into the self pleasuring type things.

After we finished our bathroom break, we made our way back to the table just in time to order another round of drinks before the next dancer was introduced.

"Please welcome to the stage one of our newest dancers, Edward." The sound guy announced.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as the next dancer took the stage. He was shaking his hands like a runner does before he starts a race. As he stepped up on the stage light flickered across him illuminating his body so that I could see him. My lips parted slighted as my breath caught quickly.

This man was nothing short of magnificent.

He was tall with a lean muscular frame. His chest was toned but not overly so with a splattering of hair there leading down a trail to his belly button. From there down, the trail was thicker going straight down between the v of his hips.

Bending down, he picked up a towel that I had seen the other dancers use to wipe the pole down. Barefooted, he padded out to the pole wrapping the towel around it taking his hands and running it up and down the length of the pole.

Once he was finished, he threw the towel back to the mirrored wall at the back of the stage. Nodding once towards the man who controlled the sound system, _Use Somebody by the Kings of Leon_ began to pump out of the speakers, filling the room.

Transfixed, I watched his whole body change from being stiff and nervous, to relaxed and confident as his body began to sway with the music. His face became a blank mask covering the nervousness that was there just seconds before.

_I've been roaming around, I was looking down at all I see  
Painted faces fill the places I can't reach_

With his left hand, he gripped the pole for balance as he knees began to pump his body up and down. His right hand slipped inside the waistband of his shorts, sliding from left to right, then lowering the zipper, slipping his hand inside gripping himself as he threw his head back.

_You know that I could use somebody  
You know that I could use somebody  
_

Taking both hands he slid his shorts down, toeing them off and throwing them towards the back of the stage. He was left in nothing but his g string underwear now, his erection prominent. His long fingers dipped under the strings, lowering them inch by delicious inch, revealing that he was bare down there like the other dancers so far.

_Someone like you and all you know and how you speak  
Countless lovers under cover of the street  
_

The spinning light about the stage hit his face revealing deep green eyes focusing on the pole in front of him. His hair was a bronze color, unlike anything I had ever seen before, sticking up all over his head.

_You know that I could use somebody  
You know that I could use somebody  
Someone like you_

Slowly he slid his underwear down over his thighs, leaving them there for a moment as he pushed his hips forward. He swung his hips from left to right making his penis sway back and forth in time with the music.

_Off in the night while you live it up I'm off to sleep  
Waging wars to shake the poet and the beat  
_

Putting his back to the pole, his hands grabbed his underwear sliding them over his knees, down his legs as his body slid down against the pole. Once he was all the way down to a crouched position, he spread his legs all the way open then closed them again, repeating the action as his penis swayed seductively between his legs.

_I hope it's gonna make you notice  
I hope it's gonna make you notice_

Standing upright, he gripped the pole, spinning around it. His hips ground into the pole rubbing his penis against it like he would against a woman. Or a man if he was gay.

_Someone like me, someone like me  
Someone like me, somebody  
_

Turning he faced the stage to his left. He brought his hands up behind his head, stretching out his stomach muscles making them taut. His hips swayed back and forth making his penis swing to the beat of the music. He turned toward the other side of the stage repeating the same moves as before._  
_

_I'm ready now, I'm ready now  
I'm ready now, I'm ready now  
I'm ready now, I'm ready now  
I'm ready now_

He danced back to the pole, rubbing his hands up and down his body, occasionally gripping himself, squeezing slightly before rubbing over it throwing his head back like he was about to have an orgasm.

_Someone like you, somebody  
Someone like you, somebody  
Someone like you, somebody_

He gripped the pole with his hands, pulling himself up almost to the top while his feet worked to hold him steady. When stopped, he leaned backward, sliding slowly down the pole.

_I've been roaming around, I was looking down at all I see_

By the time the words finished, he had slid all the way down, his hands supporting him, his legs wrapped around the pole. His hips were gyrating slightly, making his penis dance. My eyes met his. He was staring at me intently an unreadable expression on his face especially since he was upside down.

Women started screaming and clapping when the song was over. He slid the rest of the way down, his feet landing solidly on the ground. Turning around so that his ass faced away from the crowd, he got down on his hands and knees to start to retrieve the money that had been waded up into small balls so when thrown it would reach the stage.

I couldn't take my eyes off of him. Vaguely I realized that Rosalie had stuffed waded up money in my hands instructing me to throw it up on the stage. I watched as he crawled around picking up the money. When he was positioned right in front of me, his eyes met mine again. The heat of his stare made my eyes burn from the intensity of his gaze, my face blushed with the way he was looking at me.

I'm not sure how long we stared at each other. Every thing around me seemed to stop. All the women standing on the other side of the mote were trying to get his attention, the men ogling him like he was the last man on earth. Rosalie snatched the money back out of my hands, throwing it on stage for me. His eyes never left mine as the waded up the money in his hands rained around him.

He shook his head as if to break the spell that we seemed to be in. Grabbing the rest of the money and his g string, he walked to the back of the stage. He leaned against the mirror slipping on his shorts, his eyes meeting mine once again. Turning he made his way off the stage, over to the door that he had walked out of only moments before. He turned back to me one last time before he walked through the door. His green eyes burning into my brown ones, his expression was unreadable before he walked away.

"What the fuck was that?" Rosalie asked.

I didn't know how to respond. It was my turn to be speechless and confused. The most amazing looking man I have ever seen in my life just danced naked in front of me. It was the most erotic thing I had ever seen.

I knew in that moment that no matter how upset I was because Rosalie dragged me to this strip club that this would be one of the most memorable nights of my life.

**A/N: So what do you think? Please review and let me know. Until then, I'll be with Linus hiding under his blanket, thinking about Edward dancing. Yummy! **

**Next chapter will be in Edward's POV.**


	5. The Five Second Rule

**I can do nothing but offer meager apologies for taking so long to update. My kids are out of school and it's hard to find the time to write much less concentrate. Besides that, I had almost 3k words written and decided it wasn't the way I wanted to go so I had to start again. Sorry! **

**Thank you to tawelephant for being my beta on this chapter! You rock baby mama! ****Thanks to her and Cullenfan524 for being with me since the beginning. **

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Myers owns Twilight and all the characters. But stripper Edward is mine.**

**Please read and review!**

Chapter 4: The Five Second Rule

~Edward~

It has been almost two months since I moved out of my parent's house. Since I had gotten out from under their watchful eye, I had never felt more liberated in my whole life. It had been invigorating to get out of that stuffy place that my parents called home because it had never felt like a home to me anyway.

My pad now, was me. I was comfortable in my second hand furnishings and junk I bought from Wal-mart. If I haven't mentioned it before, I fucking loved that place. Some people hated it, but not me. Any place you could go in and get white powdered donuts and a Rock Band game was awesome.

_You're such a geek._

Shut up.

_Well, you are._

I'm working on that.

Yea I called it my pad because I wanted to be cool and shit. It was a stretch for me, but not only did I have to change the way I dressed, I had to change my persona to. So that meant I cussed now, though I did cuss before, just not the capacity that I do now, I would sit on my couch and scratch my balls, especially since they were itchy as hell from shaving them, and whatever else a non geek person would do.

My pad was more than a home to me. It was my haven. I didn't have to worry about someone constantly looking over my shoulder. There were no maids or butlers coming around to see if I needed anything. My mother wasn't hovering over me to see what I was wearing or doing with my spare time. It was just me hanging out doing whatever the hell I wanted to do. Like I said, it was just awesome to be on my own.

It took a little getting used to. I wasn't sure if it was because I was so used to how I lived before, or if it was because I was being me for the first time in my life and everything was foreign to me.

Ben and Tyler came and hung out with me and we would play Rock Band or whatever on the wii or we would watch a movie. It felt weird to have them come over to my place because I had only ever been to their apartment because they couldn't come to mine before when I still lived at home with my parents and they wouldn't approve of them.

I could get up and go to my refrigerator and grab a beer anytime that I wanted to. I had never drunk much before, and that hadn't changed because I didn't like to get wasted, but I liked the idea of being able to just go to my fridge and grab a beer without anyone saying anything about it.

There was no one coming into my room, cleaning up behind me or snooping through my stuff. I knew that on occasion my mother felt the need to snoop through my shit just to see if I was hiding anything from her.

For the first time in my life, I don't know, I felt like me, not what my parents wanted me to be. The geek was still in there and he wasn't so bad if I didn't have to wear the geeky clothes, I just wasn't stilted by breeding and responsibility. I was responsible to no one but me.

Besides hanging out with Ben and Tyler, I was working on my book. It was slowly but surely coming along. The outline was drafted out and I had written a couple of chapters. The first few chapters detailed my decision to be a male stripper, why I wanted to do it and what drew me to the profession. Next I was describing the physical change I had to go through to get rid of the outer geek.

My fingers were flying across my keyboard as the words came forth.

_Physically, it was more demanding than I thought it would be to dance. I wasn't lazy by any means, but I was never really physically active. Sports were something that never interested me in the least being much more interested in writing and computers. There was never a need to work out in a gym or do any type of exercising because I had always been on the lean side._

_As I began to practice dancing with the pole and working on my moves, I could tell that I used muscles that I had never used before causing them to burn and ache from the exertion. Since I had started dancing, my body, which had always been on the skinny side, now showed off the sinewy muscles that I had built up in my legs, arms and torso. Even my butt had muscles that I wasn't aware that I had._

_Watching the other dancers, I had picked up moves from each one and worked on making some of my own. Each dancer had their on way of doing things with a style that was unique to only them and suited their personality. If I was to become successful, I would have to find my own dance style, something that worked for me. _

_I was also surprised by the concentration that it took to dance to a routine. Once I decided on the moves that I wanted to do and applied them to the songs that I planned to dance to, I found it hard to get the routine down the way I wanted. It was even harder to do the moves when I was naked._

_Music was another area that garnered my time in picking out just the right song to dance to. It was hard to decide on the song that I was going to dance to the first time. Because I wasn't sure how long I was going to be able to hold out on the first song, not only because of my lack of stamina and the physical exertion it would take to get through an entire song, I wasn't all that sure I wouldn't throw up before it was over._

_My tastes in music are eclectic to an extreme. Every type of music was appealing to me; anything from classical to grunge and heavy metal to soft rock could be found on my mp3 player. In all honesty though, I don't think that the patrons would be interested in some guy dancing to Debussy. They really would think I was gay. _

_It took a while for me to find a song that was not too fast or slow and that had a good rhythm to dance to. I wanted something that had a good beat to it and something that I liked. After hearing the Kings of Leon Use Somebody song, I knew it was the one. I could see all of it in my head. The moves I would do and which tricks I would do on the pole. _

Taking my glasses off, I set them on my desk and began to rub my eyes with my fingertips. The slight pressure eased my tired eyes. This was one reason I had an mp3 player instead of an iPod. My only interest in one was to listen to music; if I wanted to get on the internet or play games, I would much rather use my laptop with a big screen, not the tiny ones you find on an iPod.

I'm probably one of the few people left on this earth who owned an mp3 player instead of an iPod. My eyes were way too sensitive to stare at that little screen for a long time. The contacts that I wore, to go with the person I was trying to create, irritated me. As soon as I came home, the first thing I did was to take my contacts out and put on my glasses.

Leaning back, I arched my back, stretching my arms above my head. Deciding that wasn't enough to ease my sore muscles, I went to grab a bottle of water out of the fridge. To keep from having muscle cramps, drinking water and staying hydrated was important. Standing up from my desk, I groaned at the soreness in my ass not only from sitting in one position too long, but also from dancing.

_Suck it up pansy. No pain no gain._

Shut up. Who the hell do you think you are? Fucking Jane Fonda.

_At least I don't dance like her._

Closing my eyes, I shook my head to rid myself of the little snarky fucker I argued with in my head sometimes. He really annoyed the shit out of me.

After chugging down the bottle of water, I tried to stretch my over used muscles. Crossing my legs at my ankles, I bent over and touched my toes to try and stretch my muscles from my ass to my lower calves. Uncrossing my ankles, I switched them around to stretch again. Standing upright, I clasped my hands behind my back, stretching them down and rolling my shoulders back to ease the tightness in between my shoulder blades from hunching over my laptop for so long.

For fifteen minutes I stretched like I had been doing everyday twice a day since I had started dancing. It had become necessary to do this to keep my muscles from locking down on me. Once I finished the exercises, I sat back down at my laptop to continue writing, picking up where I had left off.

_When I began practicing at the club, it was usually late at night after the club had closed and most of the employees had gone home. A few of the dancers, along with Ben and Tyler, would hang out and watch me dance while winding down from the night with a drink._

_They were actually pretty great about helping me. Each one would offer a suggestion on how I should do a certain move or tell me what I was doing wrong if I couldn't get the move right. _

_Ben had actually been the one to show me how to master the pole. "Let it be your center. Dance around it. Imagine it as if it were a woman dancing with you. When you dance with a woman, you usually lead the dance. Just imagine that the pole is a woman and you are dancing around her."_

_When I was up there dancing, it was easy to do as he said and focus on the pole instead of focusing on the fact that a crowd of people were going to be watching me dance naked. All of dancers had suggested that in order to keep from being nervous to not think about the crowd._

_Each one focused on a different thing to keep their mind off all the people watching them. They said it would get easier over time to block out the crowd, women and men alike._

_This was something that still concerned me to some great extent. Dancing in front of the other dancers was one thing. They were just guys watching me dance helping me learn a routine. When I was practicing like this, I wasn't naked so the thought of dancing naked in front of them wasn't anything that really made me nervous. I was more focused on working on my moves and creating a routine to the song I was dancing to._

_But the thought of dancing in front of customers, men specifically worried the shit out of me. The thought of a woman watching me dance, as Ben had once said, was almost erotic in a way. The thought of a man watching me dance just sounded perverted as hell to me. Only time would tell how I would react to seeing a man watch me dance. I didn't even want to think about the table dances or lap dances until I crossed that bridge._

_Even though each dancer did his own thing, one thing that they all agreed on was the five second rule. This was their way of not leading on one of the costumers and making them think that you were interested in them. Harry, the owner of the club, had a strict rule about fraternizing with the clientele. You could flirt all you wanted to for the sake of making money, but you couldn't try to date any of them. _

_Each of them stressed to me the importance of the five second rule and how to follow it. First and foremost, don't hold eye contact with any one for more than five seconds. Look away and down before you move your eyes to the next person. They all said sometimes if you held eye contact too long with one of the customers, they might get the wrong idea. While it is important to acknowledge them, you don't need to give them the impression that you only have eyes for them._

_Next don't look at the same customer twice. It is good to look at each one of them to draw them in and make them want you because you might have the opportunity to give that costumer a lap or table dance. But they might get the wrong impression if you do it more than once. If you run out of faces, look at mirrors on the walls and watch your own reflection._

_Last but not least, when you do look at the customer, keep a neutral look on your face. It is okay to smile, but not overly so. You have to keep your emotions in check and not show any expressions that might show happiness, worry, or even lust._

"Fuck!" Shutting the top on my laptop harder than I should have, I stood up to pace the room. Running my fingers roughly through my hair, I grabbed the ends and tugged. I haven't even danced for a week and I already broke the most important rule.

_But she was so fucking hot!_

You don't have to tell me that fucker.

_You're just pissy because you can't have her._

Growling to myself, I tried not to yell for the simple fact that I would be yelling at the snarky fucker in my head. I must be crazy!

The first time I danced in front of an audience, I walked off the stage and dry heaved. Of course nothing had come up. From the stress of worrying about dancing in front of people the first time; I was unable to eat anything. It wasn't even a busy night for the club. Harry had let me start dancing on Sunday, which was the slowest night at the club, so that I could gradually get use to the crowd.

Before I had even made it out there, my hands were sweating so bad I didn't know if I would be able to grip the pole. A cold sweat had trickled down my back from being nervous, a stark contrast to the heat my body was producing and the heat from all the people in the club.

My heart was racing like I had run a marathon and that was before I had even started to dance. It pounded in my chest, giving me the idea of how a person might feel before they had a heart attack.

There was a loud ringing in my ears. I wasn't sure what the hell that was from, but it only increased as the song went on. A dizzy sensation came over me that intensified the ringing noise I heard and the thump of my heart. The feeling that I was going to pass out before the song was over was the only thing I could focus on, in a way that was good because it kept me from thinking about the crowd watching me.

Harry had already warned me that if I chickened out when I got up on the stage, that was it, I would be fired. "These people didn't pay to get in here to watch you dance with your clothes on. They came here to watch you get naked. No one is going to want to watch you throw up either. Don't wuss out. You wanted this, so get out there and do it!" His words were echoing around in my already cluttered mind.

_Easily said by a man that didn't have to get naked in front of a room full of people, which I might add, included me, old and young, gay or straight, who the fuck knows. _

I thought you wanted me to do this.

_That was before the old geezers started staring at my junk._

Your junk?

_Whatever man, you know what I mean._

Oh god the men. It was enough to know that I would be out there dancing in front of everybody, but the fact that men were going to be watching me made my dick shrivel. Between the cock ring and the men, I didn't know how I was going to keep it up. Oh yea, and shaving my shit wasn't on the top of my dick's to do list.

Although it was a very valid worry that I had about dancing in front of the male portion of the clientele, it was actually the least of my worries when I danced the first time. There were so many, it was hard to keep track of all the thoughts that kept going through my head.

After the first night, I wanted to think it would get better. That night when I was finished, all the guys told me what a great job they thought I did. Other than working on how nervous I looked and acted, they thought my routine was sexy and they liked my choice of music. It made me feel a little better to know that I didn't look like a complete idiot out there, but my nerves were still on edge.

I made it through the week with relative ease. Harry had decided that he wasn't going to make me work the floor for lap and table dances yet, not until I could get up on the dance floor without looking like I was going to throw up. Instead he made me dance on the ledge of the rail that separated the lower and upper floors of the club. At least I didn't have to dance naked up there, but still I wore nothing but a pair of g strings that left nothing to the imagination.

All sense of self preservation was lost in that one week. Modesty was something that was ingrained in me so it was hard to let myself go and just be naked.

That Saturday night, I was more nervous than before because the club was at full capacity. Harry had made each night a theme night to draw more customers in and on Saturday, it was ladies night, the night that was promoted for bachelorette parties and birthdays. The one good thing about it was there were not as many guys there.

When it was my turn to dance, I stood at the door that separated the rooms where the dancers hung out in when they weren't dancing or working the crowd, from the club. Shaking my hands out to ease the nerves that were building up, I took deep even breaths letting them out slowly so that I would calm down.

Tyler walked off the stage towards me holding his pants in one hand while he stuffed his money in the pocket with the other. He gave me a sympathetic look. "Just forget about all the people. Concentrate on the dance." Before walking away, he lightly punched me on the arm with his fist in a futile attempt to give me courage.

Sam the sound guy announced my name and I grabbed the towel off the floor that the guys used to wipe the pole down between dances and I walked out to the pole. After I finished, I threw the towel down and nodded to Sam giving him the okay to start the music.

Shutting off all emotions willing myself to be calm, I let the music flow through me. Concentrating on the moves and keeping up with the rhythm of the music, I forgot about all the people.

Since there were more people here than I had ever danced in front of before, I concentrated on the pole and instead of looking in the eyes of the customers; I looked over their heads gazing at anything beside their faces.

Even though I was still nervous, I pushed it aside and went through my routine. I was fine until I did my last trick on the pole. When I slid down the pole upside and landed on my hands, it was the first time that I had really looked out into the crowd.

Sitting at the table right in front of me was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life.

It was hard to see her clearly while I was hanging upside down. The one thing I was sure of was that she was staring at my dick. That wasn't something new to me since I had been dancing, but the thought of her looking at me that way for some reason made my stomach muscles tighten in response.

What little calm I had obtained before I had started dancing was lost at the thought of this girl staring at me that way. My heart began to thump out a staccato against my ribs and in my head where all the blood had rushed to since I was hanging upside.

The music stopped and the crowd started going crazy. I got back down on my feet and moved away from the pole and started crawling around on the floor to get my money. When I was positioned right in front of her, I couldn't help but stop and stare.

Even though the lighting was shit in this place I could tell that she was gorgeous. Her shiny brown hair hung in waves down around her and in the light flashing I could see hints of red. Her pink full lips were slighted parted, her tongue peaking out. When she realized I was staring into her eyes, a hint of blush covered her pale skin making her cheeks glow. Her eyes were brown like her hair, but sparkled in the light revealing nervousness laced with shock.

Time stopped for a moment as I looked at her. The music faded away along with the noise of the crowd. There was just something about her that continued to draw me to her.

Finally when her friend snatched the money out of her hand and threw it at me, it brought me back to reality. I shook my head to clear it before I could focus on what I was supposed to be doing.

After picking up my money and my underwear, I walked back to the mirror and reached down to pick my shorts to put them on, looking back again to see if she was still there, if she was real. She was indeed real and still looking at me. Once I slipped my shorts on, I walked off the stage to go back in the back.

Before I walked through the door, I was compelled by some inexplicable pull to look towards her again. She was still staring at me just as I was her. Our eyes locked briefly, before Tyler yelled at me breaking me from the spell she had me under.

"Edward…Edward! What the fuck are you doing?" I turned to the sound of his voice. "Get the fuck in here!" Tyler yelled while he motioned to me to come off the floor with his hands.

"Man what the hell was that about?"

"I…I don't…I just…I don't know." I stuttered unable to get the words out much less explain what happened because truthfully I didn't know myself.

**A/N: So what do you think? Please review and let me know. Until then, I'll be with Linus hiding under his blanket, thinking about Edward dancing. Yummy! **

**Next chapter will be in Bella's POV.**

**If you had a choice, what song would you like to see Edward strip to?**


	6. Dancing God

**I can't apologize enough for taking so long to update. I suck, I know. I've had a bit of writer's block on this story and real life has been kicking ass and taking names around my house.**

**Thank you to tawelephant for being my beta on this chapter. She is very kind for taking time out to do this for me. If you had seen the corrections she had to make, you would be thanking her too! ****Thanks to her and Cullenfan524 for being with me since the beginning. **

**Disclaimer: Stephenie Myers owns Twilight and all the characters. But stripper Edward is mine.**

**Please review!**

Chapter 5: Dancing God

~Bella~

It is another boring day in the office of Bella Swan. Of course I had finished my work like hours ago, not as quick as I usually do though since my mind was wandering more than usual, leaving me with nothing to do but sit and stare at my computer screen. But all my proofreading is done, and all of my editing is done, so I'm left here to twiddle my thumbs as usual.

Well, I'm not twiddling my thumbs so to speak. What I am doing, I shouldn't be doing. I shouldn't be on the website I am looking at, going from screen to screen, searching for something that is unobtainable. Besides that, it isn't appropriate for me to be looking at something like this at work, and it certainly doesn't help my predicament.

_My horny, sexually frustrated predicament, among other things._

I should be trying to work on my writing, but I just can't write at work, that just isn't happening. I've tried, I really have. But for some reason I can concentrate so much better at the little coffee shop down below my house.

You would think that I wouldn't be able to focus with all the noise of the baristas taking orders, the sound of the coffee machines, the customers prattling away aimlessly on their cell phones or carrying on a conversation with whoever they were with. But the chatter of all the people and the clinking and hissing of the coffee machines just make it easier for me to drown everything else out and focus on what I am writing.

But lately, I haven't been able to concentrate on anything, not jack shit, no matter how hard I tried. At work, when I was proofreading or even editing a piece, my mind would wander off and I would have to force myself to focus on what I was doing.

Thankfully it hadn't affected my work performance to the point that it drew attention to Mr. and Mrs. Hale. Emmett had picked up on me being distracted, simply by him finishing his workload before me, which was unusual. And thankfully he hadn't said anything about my distracted state of mind. As long as he didn't bring attention to me, he could keep away the attention to the fact that he had an obsession with fan fiction. It's not only a girl thing.

Even when I have taken the time to go down to the coffee shop or even sit in my apartment, I haven't been able to work on my own book without errant thoughts running through my head and coming across my computer screen. My daydreams would have me so carried away that when I looked back to see what I had written, it wasn't about the story I was working on; it was about a night I knew I would never forget.

It had been so bad in the past couple of weeks, that when I looked down and realized what I was writing, I would sigh to myself in exasperation about my mind drifting and then resign myself to the fact that my thoughts wouldn't go away and go ahead save it in another file thinking that one day I might use it. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop thinking about that night.

Since the night that Rose, Alice and I went to that male strip club, all my thoughts have centered around and on him, the green eyed dancing god that had danced naked in front of me. My mind would constantly drift to that night, remembering how he danced around the stage, gripping the pole with those long fingers, his muscles tensing and straining as he held on. The way he was grinding himself against the pole, like he would do to a woman. The way he would grasp himself at times, and throw his head back like he was about to have an orgasm, the muscles in his neck strained from what looked like pleasure.

Each time I would think about it, my stomach would tighten in response and my insides would heat up, a delicious flush running through my body. Sensations that I had never felt before were beginning to rule my body in a most delectable way.

Knowing Rose and Alice the way I do, I had to avoid them so they wouldn't be able to see me fantasizing about the dancing bronzed haired beauty.

_And he was beautiful. _

Even with the crappy club lighting and the flashing lights over the stage, I could see that he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen.

I was unable to get my body under control. I had hoped that the way my body was reacting was only temporary and would go back to normal in a few days, but much to my dismay, it only became worse.

Just like now, I'm sitting here staring at Arrow's website trying to find a picture of him among all the other dancers that have their pictures posted on the website.

_Can anyone say stalker?_

It has become part of my routine to check their website, like someone checks the weather or stock reports, to see if I can find him.

Maybe he hasn't worked there long enough to get his pictures taken to be posted on the website. The way he danced though led me to believe that he had been doing it for a while, except he did seem nervous before he started.

_What the hell do I know about stripping anyway? _

Besides being nervous, he didn't really look the stripper type. I wasn't really sure what type he looked like. Well, for one, he was naked and it wasn't like I could look at his clothes and tell whether he was a jock or a suit. There was just something about him that didn't scream stripper. Hot blooded male, yes that definitely was obvious, but he just seemed too nervous.

Then on top of that, I couldn't quit thinking about the way he kept looking at me. None of the other dancers were ogling me or the other women like that. Hell, it's not like I'm a Rosalie, top model criteria with the blonde hair and sky blue eyes and a body built like a brick shit house. No, I'm just plain old me, boring brown hair and eyes with a size four body.

The chime on my computer signals, breaking me out of my depressing thoughts thankfully, letting me know that I have a new email.

**TO: Alice Brandon; Rosalie Hale; Bella Swan**

**FROM: Angela Webber **

**SUBJECT: Free for Dinner?**

**I am finally finished with the auditing assignment I have been working on. (Sigh) I would love to go out tonight and catch up and talk about your trip to Arrow. Inquiring minds want to know.**

**Email soon and let me know.**

**~Angela~**

"Fuck!" I mutter. Depression returns. Luck had been on my side for the last couple of weeks. Angela had to work through last weekend again to help out because they were behind. Alice had a shipment of material come in and was busy sorting through all the bolts of fabric. Rosalie went out to dinner with her parents and Jasper. That usually put Rosalie in a bad mood and she would go off power shopping by herself so as to not take out her feelings on us.

Before I could finish what I was thinking about, my computer chimes again alerting me to another message.

**TO: Alice Brandon; Bella Swan; Angela Webber **

**FROM: Rosalie Hale **

**SUBJECT: Dinner and Drinks**

**Hey Bitches! It's been a long week and I am looking forward to Mexican and Margaritas tonight at La Siesta. Angela is free tonight. She just emailed asking if we could do dinner. So how does 7:00 sound to everyone?**

**I've missed everyone. (sad face)**

**Rosalie**

When I finish reading it, I groan out loud. There is no way I can avoid this any longer. And I just know that they are going to read me like an open book, especially when we start talking about the dance god. I know there is no way around it, and I miss them anyway, so I reply my acceptance.

The rest of the day, I try to build up my strength and think of answers to the many questions that I know they will be asking me. Whatever answers I give will be futile anyway because as soon as they say anything, I am sure that I will start blushing and give myself away.

I am sure that Rosalie and Alice will tell Angela exactly what happened after the dancing god finished his erotic dance. I wasn't even sure what happened myself, so I don't know how I am going to explain it. It was a wonder that they hadn't questioned me before now. If they hadn't been so busy, I'm sure they would have already been hounding me for answers.

After work, I reluctantly make my way to the restaurant. When I walk into La Siesta, Rosalie is already here with a pitcher of margarita's sitting on the table. Alice had texted us all, explaining that a delivery she was expecting was running late and she would be here shortly. Just as I am approaching the table, out of the corner of my eye I see Angela walk out of the bathroom and make her way over to the table.

As soon as I sit down, I relax a little. Being around my girls does this. I know the questions will start up soon. And I know that it won't be long before they will all start quizzing me. But anytime I am around them, I am comfortable in a way that I could only be with them.

"Hey, Rose." I say, sitting down beside Angela.

"How are you?" I ask Angela, wrapping my arm around her, tilting my head till it touches hers. Even though she was Alice's friend from college, we had become close. It was the first time in several weeks, almost a month, since I have seen her face to face and I want to hug her hopefully to let her know how much I have missed her.

"I'm good. So glad that we are caught up at work." Angela replies exasperatedly, rolling her eyes. "The last couple of weeks have been hell. People have been out because of the flu, that auditing job took much longer than it should have because we were shorthanded, and then because it was the end of a tax quarter, the paperwork just kept piling up." Angela works at an accounting office and truly loves her job, but sometimes, I just have no idea what the hell she is talking about.

Rosalie picks up my glass, filling it to the brim with margarita, before handing it back to me, then picks up Angela's glass and tops it off. "I'm sorry you've been so busy. I hated that you missed my birthday." Rosalie's lips protrude out into a pout.

"I'm sorry Rosalie. You know I love you don't you?" Angela asks, batting her eyelashes at Rosalie. "Well, I have a way to make it up to you."

Rosalie claps her hands together excitedly in a way that was so much like Alice, I laugh earning me a glare from Rosalie. "Really? How?"

Just then, the door opens and Alice comes bouncing in waving and yelling over a quick hello to Roberto, the owner of the restaurant. We have been eating here since it opened, and when Roberto's wife found out Alice had a clothing store, she has shopped at Alice's store ever since then. We were all on a first name basis and sometimes Roberto and Juanita would join us at the table and drink and eat with us.

"Hey, girls!" Alice smiles lovingly at each of us, giving a hug to Angela just as I had to let her know she had missed her. Before she sat down, she gave Rosalie and I hug too. "I'm sorry that I'm late. I had to wait on the delivery guy. Then Jasper showed up to update something on my computer." She sighs happily, her eyes twinkling with love. We all knew that she had had the biggest crush on Jasper forever, but he had his head stuck to far down in the sand to notice.

Rosalie pours Alice a glass of margarita just as she had done for me and passes it to her. Just as Alice takes a big swig, Rosalie says what is on everyone's mind. "I wish you two would get together and fuck already."

Alice chokes on her drink and glared at Rosalie pointedly. "Rosalie! Do you have to be so crass about it?" Primly she wipes her mouth gaining a snicker from me and Angela.

"When have you ever known me to watch what I say? I say what's on my mind, that's just how I am." Rosalie shrugs nonchalantly.

"Well, it doesn't matter. He is with someone else," Alice says dejectedly, hurt swimming in her eyes.

"God! Don't fucking remind me about that skank!" Rosalie practically spits out. Jasper had hooked up with Lauren a couple of years ago, and ever since then, it had taken a toll on their relationship, not to mention the one with his parents.

"Why in the hell he is even with her, I don't fucking know. She is an embarrassment to the entire family. My parents tried their best the other night to make him see that she wasn't the 'right type' for him." She did air quotations when she said right type. "He's got it in his fucking head that he can't do any better. Some bullshit about that it was too late to go after what he really wanted and after being with Lauren, he didn't deserve her and it would never happen."

"I just don't understand what the hell he sees in her anyway." I quip. We all went to school with Lauren and calling her a skank was somewhat nice. She would ride the train all the time, and I didn't mean the one with an engine.

"Fuck if I know. She is nothing to look at. She's so skinny, she looks like a fucking junky. Which would probably explain why her teeth look the way they do. And her hair, it is so fine you could roll it with Uncle Ben's rice." Rosalie makes a twirling motion with her finger. We all laugh at her description of Lauren. It isn't far from the truth at all. I've seen better looking junkies on the street corner.

"Why does he think he can't have what he wants?" Angela asks curiously. She didn't know Lauren like we did and I was sure that she was baffled about how someone like Jasper could be with a slut like Lauren.

"Who the hell knows? He told my parents the other night that Lauren needed him and he couldn't turn her out into the cold. I knew that as soon as she moved in with him, and she sunk her claws in deep enough, that he would have a hard time shaking her."

We are all quiet for a moment, Rosalie seems to be struggling with her anger over her brother and Alice just looks sad. She had laughed when we said something funny, but had remained unusually quiet throughout our observations.

The waiter comes over to take our order unknowingly breaking us out of the funky state we are all in.

After he leaves, Alice turns to Angela and I watch as she struggles to put a smile on her face. Alice had been in love with Jasper since she had first met him claiming that it was love at first sight. Jasper being with Lauren hurt her more than she cared to admit.

"How was your trip out of town?" Alice asks Angela.

"It was okay. We worked our asses off so we could get finished and get back home. We had everything catered so that we wouldn't even have to leave for lunch. At night we would go downstairs to the hotel bar and get drunk. Ben and  
Tyler are hilarious." Angela smiles shyly, a faint blush on her cheeks, and I wonder what that is all about.

"Did you have hot monkey sex while you were there?" Rosalie asks dreamily, propping her chin on her hand.

"Rosalie, I swear, if I didn't know you better, I would think you had some fucking syndrome or disorder where you can't control what comes out of your mouth." Alice and Angela laugh hysterically at my comment.

"Ha Ha," Rosalie scowls at us before she starts laughing along with us. We've always given her hell about the things she says. She's not ashamed. She just tells it like it is.

"No," Angela replies once her laughter subsides. "Some stupid ass came up and hit on me though trying to get lucky. I've heard some pick up lines before, but this one took the cake. He said and I quote, 'I may not be Fred Flintstone, but I sure can make your bedrock.' Then this guy just busted out laughing at his own line. He looked like a fucking idiot. Tyler and Ben heard the guy and every since then they keep calling me Wilma."

We all start laughing. Angela was really funny. She traveled with her job sometimes, so she was always coming back and telling us strange things that happened while she was away. One thing that never happened was her having sex with a stranger. Angela and I were very much alike in that area.

Our dinner arrives shortly and we eat with gusto. The long week and the margaritas are fueling our appetites. We laugh some more, talking about anything and everything. Roberto brings another round of margaritas on the house, winking at Alice thanking her for the lovely dress Juanita had worn home the other night, and we drink some more.

Angela tops everyone's glass off and starts asking the questions that I was dreading. "So, tell me about Arrow. I've been dying to talk to you about it. Were they really naked?"

"Oh. My. Gosh. You missed it Angela." Alice all but shrieks, sounding like a valley girl. I know that it is almost time to cut her off. "They were butt ass naked. Nothing on but a cock ring girly!" Alice said a little too loud for me causing heads to turn in our direction.

"It was everything I hoped for and more." Rosalie gushes proudly.

"Whoa, wait a minute. What the hell is a cock ring?" Angela asks, as the family of four that had tolerated us for most of the night suddenly clears out of their seats. My face turns red at the thought of what they had heard. Rosalie cussing and carrying on is one thing, but talking about naked men and the fact they are about to discuss the dancing god, I was mortified.

Then as if on cue, images of the dance god with nothing on but a cock ring cloud my vision, my body begins to tingle and I can feel the heat spread along my skin.

"Let's start at the beginning." Alice begins describing everything, our first impression of the club when we walked in the door and saw for the first time the naked dancer up on the stage, the club itself, what the inside looked like, and the dance stage. Then in great detail, and I mean great detail, she described the dancer's, the music they danced to, and of course the cock ring.

The more I think about the cock ring and the dance god, I shift uncomfortably in my seat. Speaking out loud about him somehow makes it very real. More images flood my brain causing that heat to invade my body like it does every time I think about the dancing god.

My eyes drift to the table where the family had sat and then drift toward the sky sending a silent prayer to all that was holy that they had left and the restaurant was starting to clear out. Apparently we have been here longer than I thought, but by the way Alice is gesturing wildly with her hands, I know we have been here a while. She is hammered. No wonder she was talking like a valley girl.

"But the best part of the night was when one of the dancers had all eyes for our little Bella here." Rosalie looks at me with a smirk on her face and I know that my luck is about to be gone. She is about to humiliate me.

"Do tell." Angela laces her fingers together propping her chin on her hands mimicking Rosalie.

"Yes Rosalie, do tell." Alice claps her hands eagerly like a child that is about to be told a bed time story.

And I thought these girls were my friends. With friends like this, I guess I don't need enemies.

Rosalie leans forward on her elbows. "This guy gets up there, and at first he looks like he is going to hurl. You could tell that he was new and he hadn't been dancing long. Well, anyway, he shakes it off and gets out there and gives a hell of a performance. I mean a hell of a performance, dancing to a Kings of Leon song, shaking his shit to the beat."

For a brief moment, the song that the dancing god danced and swayed to filled my head. The way it started out slow and almost sensual, the singer's voice deep and raspy, talking of how he could use somebody. How the beat and words built up, almost in desperation. Every since watching the dance god dance to that song I knew that when I heard it again, I would think of nothing but him possibly using me.

"So near the end, his eyes fall on Bella. He just stares at her like he has never seen a woman before." Rosalie finishes her side of how things went that night and I bristle.

"Whatever Rosalie. It was so dark in there, I couldn't read his face any more than you could." I'm not exactly sure why he was staring at me, and it had bothered me somewhat that he had stared at me like that, but I was sure that he wasn't staring at me like _that_.

"You wouldn't know if guy was checking you out or not." Rosalie huffs in frustration.

"I resent that!"

"Well, resent all you like, but you just don't see things clearly sometimes. He was into you. He couldn't take his eyes off of you. They were yelling at him to get off the stage."

"No, he was blinded by the disco lights, but not me." Clearly I remembered the other guy trying to get him off the stage, but I thought it was because the next dancer was coming up.

"I think your wrong there Bella." Alice holds up her hand to both me and Rosalie to try and stop our bickering. Sometimes Alice had to be mediator.

"Well there is only one way to settle this. We need to go back." Angela responds sweetly, taking a sip of her drink, giving me a knowing smirk over the rim of her glass causing my mouth to gape like a fish. Apparently, she needs to cut back on the sauce too.

"What!" Rosalie and I squeak at the same time.

"That is an excellent idea." Alice beams.

"Yes!" Rosalie pumps her fist in delight.

"No!" I hiss curling my hand into a fist.

"That's what I was going to say earlier. It was going to be my way of making up to Rosalie for missing her birthday. I was going to suggest going there for my birthday. But now that I've heard this story, I insist we go." Angela is still smiling that sweet smile and all I can think about doing is smacking her.

Rosalie laughs loudly and I moan. It was bad enough that I hadn't been able to get the dancing god out of my mind, checking Arrow's website daily trying to find his picture and daydreaming about him. But now, I have to go back.

Maybe I will be lucky and he wouldn't be there anymore. Hopefully what happened before wouldn't happen again. It was a fluke. He just thought I was someone else. Or maybe because I was staring at him he was trying to figure out what my problem was.

Whatever it was, it had turned me upside down and around. The anticipation of going back was going to be just as bad as having been there and done that already. How was I ever going to survive going back when I had totally wigged myself out since going before?

Well dancing god, ready or not, here we come, figuratively and literally, in more ways than one.

**A/N: I apologize again for taking so long to update. Review and let me know what you think. Until then, I'll be with Linus hiding under his blanket, thinking about Edward dancing. (Sigh) **

**I've asked before and I'm asking again, I want to know if you had a choice, what song would you like to see Edward strip to? Something with a beat and that has some meaning. Give me enough suggestions and I'll start a poll and put it up for vote. **

**~ freakybella ~**


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